Sheriff Joe Arpaio
He likes to call himself "America's toughest sheriff" and even used that moniker as the title of his autobiography. It's a claim few people would challenge â but whether that makes Maricopa County, Ariz., sheriff Joe Arpaio an effective law-enforcement officer or, as his critics say, a flagrant human-rights violator remains an open question.

The stern law-and-order advocate has declared war on illegal immigration in his sprawling jurisdiction, which includes Phoenix, but now the Federal Government is reining him in.

Arpaio, who gained national attention for housing his inmates in tents when jails reached capacity and forcing prisoners to wear pink underwear, said earlier this month that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has revoked his deputies' authority to arrest people on immigration violations in the field (they can still check immigration status and make arrests in county jails).

A final decision by the Department of Homeland Security is expected to be made public on Oct. 14. Though Arpaio's severe tactics are popular among Arizonans, his deputies have attracted widespread criticism in their pursuit of illegal immigrants for harassment and the racial profiling of Latinos. Just a small fraction of the 33,000 arrests he has overseen have been based on documentation checks in the field, but Arpaio says the program to allow field checks is symbolically important: "This is a crime-deterrent program, too."

(Read "Arizona: It's No Party in the County Jail.")

Fast Facts:

â¢ Born June 14, 1932 in Springfield, Mass. His mother died in childbirth; his father ran an Italian grocery store.

â¢ Joined the Army at 18, just before the start of the Korean War, and wrote medical reports. Later became a police officer in Washington, D.C., and Las Vegas. Says that in Washington he learned to never back down from a fight, earning the department's "most assaulted officer" title in 1957. In Las Vegas, he once pulled over Elvis Presley and a female companion on a motorcycle.

(Read "Opponents of the Border Fence Look to Obama.")

â¢ Later joined the predecessor to the Drug Enforcement Agency, the Bureau of Narcotics, after being told they needed Italian-American agents to pursue members of the Mafia. Stayed with the agency for 32 years and worked around the world, retiring as head of the DEA's Arizona office.

â¢ Elected Maricopa County sheriff in 1993 and re-elected to five four-year terms. Maricopa now has the nation's third largest sheriff's office. The inmate population has more than doubled during his tenure and now tops 10,000.

â¢ Boasts that he has eliminated almost every comfort from county jails, including basketball, coffee, salt, pepper and movies. Inmates' TV choices are limited to networks such as the Disney Channel and C-SPAN.

â¢ Says he provides the cheapest prisoner meals in the U.S., at just 15? each. He also reduced meals in the country's prisons to two a day, to save on labor costs. Inadequate meals were one reason a federal judge ruled against Arpaio and the county in 2008, finding that they violated prisoners' constitutional rights by depriving them of appropriate health care and housing them in unsanitary conditions. The judge noted that many inmates were forced to eat moldy bread and rotten fruit.

â¢ Created a tent city to house more inmates at lower cost. Installed a neon sign on a guard tower that reads "Vacancy."

â¢ In 2005, ordered nearly 700 maximum-security prisoners to march four blocks to a new jail facility wearing only pink underwear and flip-flops. "It's a security issue," Arpaio said.

â¢ A consistently popular Republican, he has won all of his sheriff's elections by double digits.

â¢ Has faced numerous complaints from Amnesty International, the ACLU and other rights groups. His office is being investigated by the Justice Department for alleged discrimination and unconstitutional searches and seizures.

â¢ Told an interviewer in 2007 he had received 14 death threats in the previous three years.

â¢ His office has been the subject of thousands of lawsuits while he's been sheriff, leading to a reported $43 million in lawsuit settlements and expenses.

â¢ Has been married to his wife Ava for more than 50 years. Has two children and several grandchildren.

Quotes By:

"You know what? They can take away anything they want. I'm still the elected sheriff. I'm still going to enforce the state laws and I'm going to enforce the federal laws."
â Telling Fox News Channel's Glenn Beck that he will continue to pursue illegal immigrants. Oct. 9, 2009

"Too many jails in this country are just shy of being like hotels. That isn't right. I keep saying, 'People shouldn't live better in jail than they do on the outside.' Here in my jails, they don't."
â Arpaio on his campaign website, SheriffJoe.org

(Read "The Great Wall of America")

"It's 120 degrees in Iraq and the soldiers are living in tents and they didn't commit any crimes, so shut your mouths."

â Arpaio to inmates living in tents that reached 138 degrees during a heat wave. Associated Press, July 25, 2003

Quotes About:

"Every time I watch Sheriff Joe unleash his 'posse' on another neighborhood with a high Hispanic population, arresting people with brown skin for the most stupid of offenses â honking their horn, having a taillight out, not signaling when they change lanes â I have to wonder how anyone could not see this as an assault on an entire race of people."
â Columnist Jana Bommersbach (Phoenix June 200

"Over the past few weeks, sheriff Arpaio's actions have infringed on the civil rights of our residents. They have put our residents' well-being, and the well-being of law-enforcement officers, at risk."
â A letter from Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon to the then U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey calling for an investigation into whether Arpaio had committed civil rights violations. (Phoenix New Times, June 200

"The sheriff says he is keeping the peace, but it seems as if he is doing just the opposite â a useless, reckless churning of fear and unrest."
â (New York Times editorial, April 9, 200

All well and good but I believe he's had to pay out (or rather the taxpayers have had to pay out) millions in compensation.

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Fcuking liberals....

IIRC he has the lowest reoffending rate, and one of the highest (if not the highest) rate of improved education amongst inmates. He built the "school of hard knocks" in his prisons. Those who wish to attend can, it gets you a day off the chain gang and you can work to your HSE; funny business in the school gets you put back on the chain gang.

Why should convicts get sky, nice meals, gyms and god knows what else?

They are in there to reform and reconsider their hithertoo squandered and pathetic lives. And of course let us not forget a healthy dose of community vengence.

I'm not sure on the immigration side of things (and the underlying motives!), but in terms of stripping out elements of prison life, he'd get my vote any day. Thoughts?

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Just one. You're an idiot.

So far, Maricopa County paid out more than $50-million to settle lawsuits filed by people who crossed his path and were made sick, crippled, hurt or died as a result. In fact, there are so many lawsuits the countyâs liability insurance carrier upped the deductible five fold, to $5-million per action. Yet many of the suits were easily avoided: One diabetic prisoner died in custody after Arpaioâs jailers denied the woman access to her prescribed insulin.

Part of the problem is that Arpaio tolerates violence by his officers against prisoners; in fact, one deputy with whom I spoke says he actively encourages it. He told me, âIf you donât rough up prisoners, Arpaio doesnât think youâre doing your job.

âAnd we (the sheriffâs department) seem to attract a lot of violent officers,â he adds ruefully.

As a result, the list of victims is sickeningly endless:

* Charles Agster, a 33-year-old mentally handicapped man, died in the county jail three days after being forced by sheriffâs officers into a restraint chair and placed in a âspit hoodâ when he suffered a seizure. He was declared brain dead three days later and a jury awarded his parents $9-million.
* Scott Norberg, a former Brigham Young University football player, died after detention officers shocked him several times with a stun-gun. According Amnesty International, Norberg was already handcuffed and face down when officers dragged him from his cell and placed him in a restraint chair with a towel covering his face for the electrocution. After Norbergâs corpse was discovered, deputies accused Norberg of attacking them, overlooking the fact that he was handcuffed at the time. The county settled a lawsuit for $8.25-million.
* Brian Crenshaw, a legally blind and mentally disabled inmate, suffered fatal injuries while being held in Maricopa County Jail. Crenshawâs family filed a lawsuit which resulted in a $2 million award. As in the Norberg case, Arpaioâs office was accused of destroying evidence.
* Richard Post was a parapalegic inmate arrested for possessing marijuana. He was placed in a restraint chair by guards and his neck was broken in the process. The event, caught on video, shows guards smiling and laughing while Post is being injured, which cost him the use of his arms. The now-qualrapelegic Post settled for $800,000.
* Jeremy Flanders, an inmate at Tent City, was attacked with rebar tent stakes which were not concreted into the ground. Although these stakes had been used as weapons in a previous riot at the facility, Arpaio chose not to secure them properly. During the trial, the plaintiff argued successfully the sheriff and his deputies knew that prisoners used rebar as weapons and did nothing to prevent it. Flanders suffered permanent brain damage as a result of the attack. He was awarded $635,532, of which Arpaio was held personally responsible for 35%.

These are not isolated incidents of âa few bad apples.â Much of the department is as rotten as its sheriff and the Maricopa County court files are stuffed full of literally hundreds of similar cases involving sheriff office abuse.

As a result, the Justice Dept. is now conducting an intense investigation of Arpaio and his department.

I'm not sure on the immigration side of things (and the underlying motives!), but in terms of stripping out elements of prison life, he'd get my vote any day. Thoughts?

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Just one. You're an idiot.

So far, Maricopa County paid out more than $50-million to settle lawsuits filed by people who crossed his path and were made sick, crippled, hurt or died as a result. In fact, there are so many lawsuits the countyâs liability insurance carrier upped the deductible five fold, to $5-million per action. Yet many of the suits were easily avoided: One diabetic prisoner died in custody after Arpaioâs jailers denied the woman access to her prescribed insulin.

Part of the problem is that Arpaio tolerates violence by his officers against prisoners; in fact, one deputy with whom I spoke says he actively encourages it. He told me, âIf you donât rough up prisoners, Arpaio doesnât think youâre doing your job.

âAnd we (the sheriffâs department) seem to attract a lot of violent officers,â he adds ruefully.

As a result, the list of victims is sickeningly endless:

* Charles Agster, a 33-year-old mentally handicapped man, died in the county jail three days after being forced by sheriffâs officers into a restraint chair and placed in a âspit hoodâ when he suffered a seizure. He was declared brain dead three days later and a jury awarded his parents $9-million.
* Scott Norberg, a former Brigham Young University football player, died after detention officers shocked him several times with a stun-gun. According Amnesty International, Norberg was already handcuffed and face down when officers dragged him from his cell and placed him in a restraint chair with a towel covering his face for the electrocution. After Norbergâs corpse was discovered, deputies accused Norberg of attacking them, overlooking the fact that he was handcuffed at the time. The county settled a lawsuit for $8.25-million.
* Brian Crenshaw, a legally blind and mentally disabled inmate, suffered fatal injuries while being held in Maricopa County Jail. Crenshawâs family filed a lawsuit which resulted in a $2 million award. As in the Norberg case, Arpaioâs office was accused of destroying evidence.
* Richard Post was a parapalegic inmate arrested for possessing marijuana. He was placed in a restraint chair by guards and his neck was broken in the process. The event, caught on video, shows guards smiling and laughing while Post is being injured, which cost him the use of his arms. The now-qualrapelegic Post settled for $800,000.
* Jeremy Flanders, an inmate at Tent City, was attacked with rebar tent stakes which were not concreted into the ground. Although these stakes had been used as weapons in a previous riot at the facility, Arpaio chose not to secure them properly. During the trial, the plaintiff argued successfully the sheriff and his deputies knew that prisoners used rebar as weapons and did nothing to prevent it. Flanders suffered permanent brain damage as a result of the attack. He was awarded $635,532, of which Arpaio was held personally responsible for 35%.

These are not isolated incidents of âa few bad apples.â Much of the department is as rotten as its sheriff and the Maricopa County court files are stuffed full of literally hundreds of similar cases involving sheriff office abuse.

As a result, the Justice Dept. is now conducting an intense investigation of Arpaio and his department.

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And the moral is: don't do the Crime and you wont do the Time.

If Maricopa County Sheriffs were routinely abusing hundreds of INNOCENT people, then I'd see the problem. As long as they are only abusing/killing convicted criminals, I'm afraid I'm getting no reading on the Give-A-Fcuk-O-Metre.

If Maricopa County Sheriffs were routinely abusing hundreds of INNOCENT people, t

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See above.

That would be true if everyone got that treatment equally. Except it's the mentally/physically disabled who seem to be dying, and some of them for the possession of marijuana. Why don't you be consistent, and advocate death sentences for all felonies, rather than leaving it to chance by location (in Maricopa County) and physical ability?

If Maricopa County Sheriffs were routinely abusing hundreds of INNOCENT people, t

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See above.

That would be true if everyone got that treatment equally. Except it's the mentally/physically disabled who seem to be dying, and some of them for the possession of marijuana. Why don't you be consistent, and advocate death sentences for all felonies, rather than leaving it to chance by location (in Maricopa County) and physical ability?

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Darwinism. Sheriff Joe and his Merry Men have been around for a while. Their reputation is well known. Frankly, commiting an arrestable offence in Maricopa County ranks with breaking into houses in Texas for sheer stupidity.